OH NO HE DIDN'T

Good day to you all. Well, last night was really great. Our friends met us here at the house and we went off to the Theatre to watch the Pantomime. It’s a really lovely theatre and a warm welcome from the winter nights.

We laughed from start to finish. It was Widow Twanky.

The pantomime I mean, not one of our friends…

The pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece and later, Rome. Like theatre, it encompassed the genres of comedy. It used to be all mime to music.

No Ancient Pantomime has survived as far as I know. The development of English pantomime was strongly influenced by the continental commedia a form of popular theatre that arose in Italy in the early modern times. This was a "comedy of professional artists" travelling from province to province in Italy and then France, who improvised and told comic stories that held lessons for the crowd, changing the main character depending on where they were performing. Each story had some of the same fixed clown characters. These often included young lovers. In the 17th century, adaptations of the commedia characters became familiar in English entertainments. these depicted eloping lovers. In the first two decades of the 18th century, two rival London theatres, one of them being Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, presented productions that began seriously with classical stories that contained elements of opera and ballet and ended with a comic "night scene". Tavern Bilkers, by John Weaver, the dancing master at Drury Lane, is cited as the first pantomime produced on the English stage.

  This was not too popular, but in 1843, Parliament changed the Pantomimes so spoken drama was allowed.

Magic was introduced by a wand, which is still used today. Pantomimes now days are funny humor called slapstick.

  By the early 1800s, the pantomime's classical stories were often supplanted by stories adapted from European fairy tales, classic English literature or nursery rhymes.

The opening "fairy story" was often blended with a story about a love triangle: a "cross-grained" old father who owns a business has a pretty daughter, who is pursued by two suitors. The one she loves is poor but worthy, while the father prefers the other, a wealthy person. Another character is a servant in the father's establishment. Just as the daughter is to be forcibly wed to the rich man, or just as she was about to elope with her lover, the good fairy arrives.

In our Pantomimes, the audience is created. Without the involvement of the crowd’s participation, the pantomime would not work. We have to shout the words “He’s behind you!” And “Oh no he isn’t!” Same words each year, never change, an yet still as fresh as the first day or night they were introduced into our English Pantomimes.

We have to Boo, and hiss when the villain comes on the stage too.

We didn’t let the actors down as we shouted and participated in the show. At the end, traditionally, birthdays and so on are read out. I died when our names were read out. My Husband and I  had a request handed in by one of our sweet friends. Oh God I was the colour of my coat and jeans. Purple.

Heheheh.

Anyway in the intervals, our friends even brought sweeties, so we indulged.

It was a full house and extremely atmospheric.

So easy too. No stress getting there or back. Worrying about how and when.

Today Hub back at work, in the capital. So life back to normal. X